• 21 January – French-born 'gentleman
highwayman'
Claude Duval is hanged at
Tyburn gallows in London and subsequently buried in
St Paul's, Covent Garden. • 24 March –
John Manners, Lord Roos, obtains a private act of Parliament,
Lord Roos Divorce Act 1670 (
22 Cha. 2. c.
1 ), giving him a
divorce from his wife,
Anne Manners, Lady Roos, on the grounds of her
adultery. • 31 March – warship
HMS Sapphire is wrecked beyond repair when her captain, John Pearce, orders the ship to be run aground at Sicily while fleeing what he believes to be four Algerian pirate ships, rather than attempting to fight. The ships turn out to have been friendly, and Pearce and his lieutenant, Andrew Logan, are court-martialed for their cowardice and executed on 17 September. • 11 April –
Conventicles Act 1670 receives royal assent, imposing fines for attendance at "seditious conventicles" (any religious assembly other than of the Church of England). • 2 May – a royal charter is granted to the
Hudson's Bay Company with the jurisdiction to control administration and commerce in
Rupert's Land, governed for the crown by
Rupert, Duke of Cumberland, the King's cousin, a 1.5 million square mile area around
Hudson Bay in North America. • 1 June – the
secret Treaty of Dover is signed between King
Charles II of England and
Louis XIV of France, ending hostilities between their kingdoms. Louis will give Charles 200,000 pounds annually. In return Charles promises to relax the laws against Catholics, gradually re-Catholicize England, support French policy against the
Dutch Republic (leading England into the
Third Anglo-Dutch War), and convert to Catholicism himself when conditions permit. The treaty is ratified on 4 June. The terms will not become public until the early 19th century. Louis is represented in the negotiations by Charles' sister,
Princess Henrietta, Duchess of Orléans, who dies suddenly on 30 June soon after returning to France. • 8 July O.S. – by the
Treaty of Madrid (Godolphin treaty),
Spain recognises
Jamaica and the
Cayman Islands as English possessions. • 11 July – the
Treaty of Copenhagen is signed between Charles II and King
Christian V of Denmark to promote alliance and commerce. • 14 August – Quakers
William Penn and
William Mead preach in
Gracechurch Street in the City of London, in defiance of the new Conventicles Act, and are arrested and tried but on 5 September the jury refuses to convict. • 17 August – a joint fleet of warships from England (commanded by Commodore Richard Beach on
HMS Hampshire) and from the Dutch Republic (led by Admiral Willem Joseph van Ghent on
Spiegel) rescue 250 Christian slaves and then sink six
Barbary pirate ships in a battle in the Mediterranean Sea off of the coast of
Morocco at
Cape Spartel. • 18 August –
John Dryden is appointed as historiographer royal. • 9 November –
Bushel's Case, following the trial of Penn, establishes that members of a
jury may not be punished for delivering a verdict according to their conscience even if contrary to the view of the judge. • 21 December • The
Cabal Ministry in London signs a treaty with France based on June's secret Treaty of Dover but with the conversion clause removed. •
John Coventry, MP is maimed for making a joke about the King, resulting in passing of the Maiming Act, making lying in wait to maim anyone a felony. •
Rock salt is discovered near
Northwich in Cheshire. ==Births==